I think we should go after him. Vikes want him to take a pay cut and it doesn't look like he's in their long term plans. I happen to think he's a very good TE which is something I think we can use. Think there's a chance? Do we have the cap room?
He's 29-year-old's and is currently slated to make $7.3 million in 2019. He is the 9th highest paid TE. 1 Jimmy Graham - $10,000,000 2 Travis Kelce - $9,368,400 3 Jordan Reed -$9,350,000 4 Greg Olsen - $8,550,000 5 Delanie Walker - $8,500,000 6 Zach Ertz - $8,500,000 7 Trey Burton - $8,000,000 8 Jared Cook - $7,500,000
I think we will definitely pass. TE is a position that we overdressed this offseason. Allen is a solid blocking TE who has had reasonable success in the passing game. Walford had a promising start to his career before injuries derailed him. O'Leary was surprisingly good. Here i the bigger picture. The Dolphins invested heavily on TE last year. Gesicki was a 2nd round pick, and I honestly think that Gase never used him properly. I never understood why we didn't make a concerted effort to work him over the middle of the field like he did in college. Gase would always run weird short sideline routes. He is a big guy, and bigger guys naturally lack the agility to turn upfield. I would completely understand those routes with Grant, Wilson, or Stills. The hope would be that they could turn a 5 yard pass into 20 by quickly flipping up field, but with Gesicki, that never made sense. Let him use his straight line speed to get up field, and throw that dude a high pass and let him go get it. Also don't forget, we drafted Smythe a blocking TE in the 4th last year. He had moments but looked kinda slow at practices. In all likelihood, we are probably gonna be cutting at least one of these guys, and depending on what Cox's role is, maybe more than one. My guess is that Cox takes either a TE spot or a RB spot. The Dolphins seem committed to have a full back of some sort on the final roster (maybe O'Leary could compete for that flex role).
I would like to go get him, but only under the condition that he was interested in resigning a longer deal (say three years) with us. He'd be a huge addition to the offense and for Rosen, and would allow Geskicki to essentially move to the role of a bigger WR for now.
It's not a need right now. They need to develop the young guys. They aren't a decent TE away from a winning team.
No, we aren't any one player away from a winning team of course. But a really good, experienced TE could be a real boom for Rosen, and getting the offense into a stable and productive place. In fact, its not hard to believe that he could even be the leading reciever on a team where a bunch of different guys catch 40+ passes or so.
They already signed Allen to fill in the gap for two years until Gesicki hopefully develops. Signing Rudolph just doesn't make sense right now for this team who isn't really going to compete for a playoff spot this season.
I wouldn't be too quick to assume that. Prior to NE is was known as a good pass catcher. I know it would be shocking to some of you if a guy was more productive outside NE but he definitely could be.
He was awesome in college imo, loved him as a pass catcher, so smooth and good, not sure what happened
He had a really good rookie year, then suffered a serious injury in the first game of his second season. He came back to be a solid contributor after that with the Colts, but they let him walk as a free agent when his contract was up. He signed as a free agent with the Patriots, but he didn't catch even a single pass in the first eight games of 2017, before going on to catch 10 over the final eight. Then last season, he caught a whopping three passes, on four targets, for 27 yards. Would it be great, if at age 29 he had a career rebirth and became a real contributor for the Fins this season? Of course. But I'm going to just hope that he can be a really good blocker, help our RT keep Rosen clean, and help pave the way in the running game. He and Gesicki are guaranteed roles on the team barring injury. The question becomes how many of the rest the team will keep, from O'Leary, Smythe, and Walford. Along with FB Chandler Cox.
It's been echoed in this thread, but I don't think his age really matches up with the direction we're going right now. We could pick him up if he's cut, but I don't see us trading for him. Factor in the fact that he doesn't want to take a pay cut and I don't see it happening either way.